Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. THURSDAY, MARCH 2, 1911. WORKERS' DWELLINGS.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10178, 2 March 1911, Page 4

Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. THURSDAY, MARCH 2, 1911. WORKERS' DWELLINGS.

I Ours."is.a-.-paternal Government. It, is "always doing ' 'somethings ; extra-; ■'.ordinary, for .the workiiig main. One; of its mosjt recCnt acts of beneficence is to provide the money with which to enable the worker to' -make his home; his own. That is to say, "it pretends to -find the money. "Several Masterton workers have been bold enough to seek assistance. And with /what result?; "Tliey liaye discovered I that the Government will not advance them one-ihalf tie ( value of their property. . Naturally they have looked to their member for' an ex- I planation. And Mr Hogg, in turn, has looked to the head of the Advances to Settlers 1 Office."''How does he fare? He is informed tihat the advances to workers are imade only upon the dwellings. The Department will advance tliree-fourtfis the value of the building, but will not advance upon the , land upon which -it stands. Tims, if a worker owns a section 'valued at £IOO, .and erects upon it, a house worth £l5O ~<as the': beginning of a home to be subsequently extended, lie may receive an advance J oi| only £ll2 10s, Which repre- I sent® less tfhan half of his actual i security. Could anything more preposterous be conceived ? Could anything be more; dishonest? The Gov-, eminent actually . takes the man's land ''j&s security, and does not lend Kim' a penny piece upon it. • Advances to workers,.. forsooth! If a private money-lending institution were to adopt such practices it would be impeached from one end , of the Dominion to the other. The very idea of the Government advancing upon a risky security, and refusing

to advance upon first-class security is too tunny for words. There must surely be a mistake somewhere. Mr Hogg cannot be correctly informed. Common-sense people wif: refuse to believe that the Government would do any tiling so ludicrous as that referred to.